Lot Essay

In his larger-scale shape drawings of 1973, Bochner was developing pictorial ideas concerning shape and measurement which are derived from his earlier installation works. He was interested in discovering ways to re-configure diagrams which he had conceived from points and lines making greater perceptual demands on the spectator. In Compound/Complex (V), for example, Bochner takes geometric shapes of equal area which are made-up (compounded) of similar elements (square, triangle and pentagram) and places them on the sheet so that it is difficult to comprehend their equivalence.